Syria - Official Labour Party Policy

You won't find this anywhere in the mainstream news.  Here is the full text of the official Labour Party position on bombing (or not) Syria, as passed at the Party Conference in September 2015:



  1. Clear and unambiguous authorisation for such a bombing campaign from the United Nations;
  2. A comprehensive European Union-wide plan is in place to provide humanitarian assistance to the increased number of refugees that even more widespread bombing can be expected to lead to;
  3. Such bombing is exclusively directed at military targets directly associated with ‘Islamic State’ and is not aimed at securing regime change in Syria, noting that if the bombing campaign advocated by the British government in 2013 had not been blocked by the PLP under Ed Miliband’s leadership,  ‘Islamic State’ forces might now be in control of far more Syrian territory, including Damascus.
  4. Any military action is subordinated to international diplomatic efforts, including the main regional powers, to bring the Syrian civil war to an end, since only a broadly-based and sovereign Syrian government can ultimately retake territory currently controlled by ‘Islamic State’.

http://act.stopwar.org.uk/lobby/stopbombingsyria
So is Labour Party policy to bomb Syria?  Obviously not.  Just for one, the latest UN resolution is certainly not clear and unambiguous. It does not invoke UN Chapter VII article 42 which is the one necessary to authorise war or military action. New!: Further reading.

The resolution actually says action should stay within the UN charter, i.e. 42 needs to be invoked before military action:

"Calls upon Member States that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular with the United Nations Charter"

Meanwhile 2, 3 and 4 of Labour Party policy are clearly not met.

Despite what many of the over paid, rarely accountable,  unrepresentative Parliamentary Labour Party think. 

Corbyn letter

Quite hard to find, here it is:

"Dear Colleague,

The Prime Minister made a statement to the House today making the case for a UK bombing campaign against Isis in Syria. A copy of my response has already been circulated.

We have all been horrified by the despicable attacks in Paris and are determined to see the defeat of Isis.

Our first priority must be the security of Britain and the safety of the British people. The issue now is whether what the Prime Minister is proposing strengthens, or undermines, our national security.

I do not believe that the Prime Minister today made a convincing case that extending UK bombing to Syria would meet that crucial test. Nor did it satisfactorily answer the questions raised by us and the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

In particular, the Prime Minister did not set out a coherent strategy, co-ordinated through the United Nations, for the defeat of Isis. Nor has he been able to explain what credible and acceptable ground forces could retake and hold territory freed from Isis control by an intensified air campaign.

In my view, the Prime Minister has been unable to explain the contribution of additional UK bombing to a comprehensive negotiated political settlement of the Syrian civil war, or its likely impact on the threat of terrorist attacks in the UK.

For these and other reasons, I do not believe the Prime Minister's current proposal for air strikes in Syria will protect our security and therefore cannot support it.

The Shadow Cabinet met today for an initial discussion and debated the issues extensively. We will meet again on Monday, when we will attempt to reach a common view.

I will get in touch again when we know the timing of the debate and vote.

Yours

Jeremy Corbyn,

Leader of the Labour Party."

 http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Read-Jeremy-Corbyn-s-letter-Labour-MPs/story-28249617-detail/story.html

The French Connection

What is the connection?

1) Saudi prince arrested in drugs bust after TWO TONNES of Captagon drugs found on jet


Robert Fisk writes: "It’s not every day you get to bust a Saudi prince. Twenty-five boxes and six suitcases, all – according to photos and video – stamped with the Saudi Arabia emblem of palm tree and crossed swords, to be shipped out on a private Saudi jet. And on the boxes can be seen the name of an emir of the state for which David Cameron himself lowers the British flag when the monarch dies."

and


2) "Investigators, according to French media, [went] to rooms 311 and 312 in a hotel in Alforttville, a suburb about four miles southeast of central Paris. There, police found the needles the attackers had used to inject themselves with the amphetamine Captagon. The drug, police believe, helped the killers remain calm enough to complete their bloody rampages." Miami Herald

 

Syrian crisis: the booming business of Captagon 

"During wars, psychoactive substances have always been the secret weapon of military troops."


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article45315924.html#storylink=cpy